369 libraries plus 29 mobiles currently under threat or recently closed (List below “News”)

News 
Roy Clare, the head of the MLA, described people fighting to save libraries as white and middle class, wanting to preserve their services in “aspic”.  I have no idea what aspic is.  Is it a new XHTML tool?  Something to do with Java? Perhaps I should ask a librarian, while I still can. As long as I don’t live outside a major town.  Meanwhile, campaigns continue to get more organised, with freedom of information requests and legal challenges. 

Bromley – KAB talking book loans suspended – News Shopper
Derbyshire – service cuts “likely” – This is Derbyshire
Doncaster – putting the “con” into consultation – Alan Gibbons
Doncaster – legendary singer Tony Christie supports campaign – Alan Gibbons
Flintshire – Queensferry, Garden City, Bagillt and Halkyn petitions – The Leader
Gloucestershire – Bourton councillors plan use for library building – Cotswold Journal
Gloucestershire – Freedom if information request, senior librarians question council plans – FoGL
Gloucestershire – FOI follow-up request to Mr Vaizey – FoGL
Lewisham – Questions to the council – Alan Gibbons
North Yorkshire – “Voices for the Library” – BBC Radio York (at 7.10 to 12)
North Yorkshire – library closures will threaten rural communities – Yorkshire Post
Oxfordshire – Sonning Common Library campaign (Ed Vaizey speaks in defence of libraries) – BBC Radio 4 News (at 24.50-27) also on Alan Gibbons Blog 
Oxfordshire – Three public meetins on future of libraries – Henley Standard
Sheffield – Stop the Cuts march – Facebook
Somerset – council rethink on mobile library cuts – BBC News
Somerset – letter from Crispin School against the library cuts – Crispin School
Somerset – Save Somerset Libraries – False Economy


Cut non-essentials first rather than libraries – Mail
Legal challenges ot library closures – BookSeller
Libraries should not be preserved in aspic for the white middle classes says  boss of MLA – Good Library Guide
Mapping the UK Library Cuts – Guardian
Rebecca Front (from “The Thick Of It”) “libraries are a great institution” – Voices for the Library
Roy Clare – First letter of year from MLA boss disappoints library campaigners, it’s fair to say – Alan Gibbons.